Monday, August 18, 2014

"Uprooting is a devastating blow because you have to separate yourself
overnight from something that, for as long as you can remember, has been
an important part of your identity. In a sense, you are your culture,
customs, language, country, your family, your lovers. Yet exile, should
you survive it, can be the greatest of philosophical gifts, a blessing
in disguise. In fact, philosophers, too, should be uprooted. At least
once in their lives. They should be exiled, displaced, deported — that
should be part of their training. For when your old world goes down it
also takes with it all your assumptions, commonplaces, prejudices and
preconceived ideas. To live is to envelop yourself in an increasingly
thicker veil of familiarity that blinds you to what’s under your nose.
The more comfortable you feel in the world, the blunter the instruments
with which you approach it. Because everything has become so evident,
you’ve stopped seeing anything. Exile gives you a chance to break free.
All that heavy luggage of old “truths,” which seemed so only because
they were so familiar, is to be left behind. Exiles always travel light." More wisdom here: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/the-wisdom-of-the-exile/?_php=true&_type=blogs&smid=fb-share&_r=0